Parenting with Affirmations | 50 intentional affirmations

Words, how powerful they are. As an educator by heart (and degree lol) I studied the foundation of language. When it starts to form, how to teach it and how important words are to learning any subject. As a parent I’ve learned how important words are to children in a whole new way. Words are how we can either build up or tear down our children. Words are how we can show our tiny humans encouragement about how wonderful they are or hinder it. So, how can we use our words for all the good they have to offer you ask… affirmations.

Affirmations | using them as a parent

Our children hang on our every word and long for our approval.

When my son is playing I often times catch him doing something and then turning to look at my husband or I. He wants to know we see him, that we are proud or approve. Using words with our children seems so simple but it’s easy to get caught up, isn’t it? I know, I know kids are hard work, they are difficult and some days it takes all we have to have nice words at all to say. Am I right? All of that can cause us to be repetitive or on auto pilot with our words and responses to our children.

These are affirmations but it’s easy to get stuck saying blanket statements.

When I talk to my toddler I try to speak to him like I do everyone. Even though he’s only 21 months old he is like a sponge. Did you know that in a growth spurt between 16-23 months a child can learn up to 2 NEW WORDS A DAY??!! That’s crazy! I want to make sure that I am using all the words I can with him. Make it a point to use different words, describing words and words that are tailored to your child. Then, encourage your child with all those wonderful words.

Let’s say your child just built a tower out of blocks. You could say, “Good job Honey,” which there is nothing wrong with. But what if you said “Wow, I bet you tried hard to build that!” ?

Variety is the spice of life

Using descriptive language is a great way to up your affirmation game. Here are a few of my favorite affirmations to use with my kids.

Keep trying, you got this.

My son is very strong willed so this is one that I use on a daily basis. I am acknowledging his determination and telling him he’s doing well. I could say good job and that would be good, but by using this statement I am speaking directly to what he is doing and also using words like trying. Children tend learn verbs first so using them in your affirmations is important.

Thank you!

This is huge in my house. I am a manner stickler. I want to raise my children to be polite (which I assume you do as well). So how do we do that? Be examples. If I we want our children to be polite and use words like please and thank you, then we need to use them. Thank you is a HUGE affirmation. You are acknowledging whatever it is your child has done and praising them.

I try to use thank you with my sons whenever I can. I want them to know they are appreciated and that their actions are important. Even something as small as offering me a bite of his dinner (that I don’t necessarily want) is cause for a thank you. I want him to know that his action to share is appreciated.

You are so important

Sometimes affirmations are conversation starters. When you are cuddling or playing on the floor with your babies make it a point to voice all those feelings you have. When you look at your baby and think “you’re so wonderful,” or “You are the most important thing in my life,”tell them! Those mom and dad moments where you feel all the feels about how fast time is going those are great moments to express how important they are.

It takes two seconds to say. They may not understand or even look at you when you say it haha but they heard it. That phrase, those words they becomes part of what they think of themselves.

Being intentional with our children

Just like anything other goal you have, you have to start with being intentional. Start by listening to how you speak to your children on a regular basis.

What if we used our words to be intentional and specific about our children and their actions? Not only would we be building our children’s confidence, showing them their worth, building their vocabulary but we would be using our words to give our children that inner voice they will hear for the rest of their lives.

I would love to hear some of your favorite affirmations that you use with your tiny humans, let me know below!

Want to read more of the affirmations that I use?

Click below to get a free download of 50 intentional affirmations to use when parenting your tiny human.

(12) Comments

I never told my kids to say Thank you, they just one day started saying it too. Because, as you said, they do learn from us and seeing us always saying Thank you, they started doing it too. Not because we told them to, but because they understood 😉 Great post, by the way 😉

I love how positive this post is. I never really understood what “parenting” was until I saw my son developing traits that he picked up from my husband and me. The list of affirmations are very helpful!

Just as we try not to use “bad words”, we also need to use “good words”. I love your approach! The thank you part is something I think many parents focus on. One thing we are focusing on is teaching patience – the “wait” part. So we keep saying, “Good things come to those who wait”. This way our son is learning that he can’t always get instant gratification.